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Scientist: Air still safe in Erie despite elevated propane levels

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
04/23/2012 08:49:13 PM MDT

Updated:
04/23/2012 09:06:55 PM MDT

April Beach, left, and Wendy Leonard, both mothers of elementary school students, walk from a fracking site near two schools in December. A growing group of Erie residents is concerned about gas drilling and fracking.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Erie may have registered more propane in its air than some large metropolitan areas in the United States, but that doesn't mean the health of the town's 20,000 residents is in danger.

So says a study that will be presented to Erie's Board of Trustees on Tuesday night. The report claims to put some findings from a 2011 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration air analysis -- which found 10 times more propane in Erie than was detected in Pasadena, Calif. -- into proper context.

"Just putting something out there and saying that it's elevated doesn't really help," said Dollis Wright, president of Thornton-based Quality Environmental Professional Associates. "People have to understand what that really means."

Propane and other emissions cited in the NOAA study are associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing -- an extraction method that relies on water, sand and chemicals to access gas hidden in deep pockets of rock. The agency's findings played a significant role in persuading all of Erie's trustees last month to pass a six-month moratorium on issuing new drilling permits.

Wright, a toxicologist who worked for the Centers for Disease Control for four years, said her analysis of the NOAA report revealed that the levels of propane the agency measured in Erie were actually "1,000-fold or more below those considered to be of health concern."

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The peak propane level in Erie reported by NOAA was 115 parts per billion, Wright's report states, but people exposed to 1 million parts per billion of propane for 10 minutes have shown no ill effects from the gas.

Also, she said, the health issues that anti-fracking activists have claimed might be resulting from drilling activity -- endocrine disruption, diabetes and asthma -- are not caused by propane.

"I think it helps the citizen who wants to know what is really happening," Wright said.

Steven Brown, a NOAA scientist in Boulder, said his study only reported measurable findings of chemicals in the air but didn't make any conclusions about what constitutes an acceptable or unhealthy level of those compounds.

Erie Town Administrator A.J. Krieger said the town hired Wright's firm to give "analytical context" to NOAA's data, which he acknowledges were initially unsettling.

"That was the ghost that lingered after that (February NOAA) presentation, and as a town, we felt we wanted to get some information to our board and residents about the risks of these compounds in the NOAA study," Krieger said.

Erie is paying Wright $3,330 for her services.

But Jen Palazzolo, a resident who helped found anti-drilling group Erie Rising, said Erie made a mistake hiring Wright, who has done significant amounts of work on behalf of the oil and gas industry.

"My concern is that this is a huge conflict of interest," Palazzolo said. "She's working hand in hand with oil and gas and with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. She doesn't seem like a true third-party, unbiased person to form an opinion on the NOAA report."

She said because Wright's report is focused on propane, it doesn't answer questions about other gases -- such as butane and ethane -- that are released during drilling that could be making Erie's air hazardous to breathe.

"These are precursors to ozone," Palazzolo said. "By emitting excess levels in the air, you could be making ozone worse than it already is."

Wright said Erie only asked her to look at propane. And while she admits working on behalf of industry, she said the numbers don't lie.

"Even if they hire another person, the science is still the same," she said.

Krieger said Wright is uniquely qualified to interpret air quality data, and the town isn't looking to whitewash any unpleasant realities.

"I don't think the messenger needs to be shot here," he said.

Wright's conclusions that propane levels in Erie are not at dangerous concentrations hasn't stopped the town from insisting to oil and gas operators that they need to capture all of their emissions, Krieger said.

"We're not suggesting that any level of propane in the air is fine to us," he said. "As a town, we're still all over 100 percent emissions capture."

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